Books
Note to people who live in any of Stephen King's creations: don't live in Maine. If you live in Maine, move somewhere else. Nothing good ever happens there. Case in point.
In King's newest book, Under the Dome, a small town in Maine becomes trapped under an invisible force field. Chaos ensues as the citizens turn against one another, turning to violence in their fight for survival.
The book has already been optioned as a possible HBO miniseries to be produced by Steven Spielberg. Might I suggest a wildly appropriate little-known late nineties dance song for the soundtrack?
Steven Spielberg Teams with Stephen King for Under the Dome [Slashfilm]
America's love affair with girls who get smoochy with vampires is far from over.
A CW pilot based upon the Vampire Diaries book series is in the works, and former Lostie/ridiculously pretty person Ian Somerhalder has just recently joined the cast.
No doubt this show is meant to ride on the coattails of Twilight, but let's not write it off too soon. When vampires and high school girls mix, the results can occasionally be pretty awesome.
Somerhalder joins 'Vampire Diaries' [Variety]
An upcoming book from TV writer Seth Grahame-Smith is garnering much anticipation...and he didn't even write most of it.
The book is called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I think you can probably see where this is going.
About 85% of the book will consist of Jane Austen's classic romance novel, which has long since slipped into public domain. The rest of it? Why, violent zombie battles, of course.
As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton--and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers--and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.
Expect the book in April, but hold on to your corsets, because Hollywood studios are apparently already gunning for the movie rights.
Jane Austen's Bennet girls go zombie slaying [Times Online]
Last June I mentioned that Perry Moore's Hero, a book about a gay teenager with superpowers, might be adapted into a TV series. Looks like the project is finally good to go, though somewhat unsurprisingly, the show will only be airing on the subscription cable channel Showtime.
The hourlong series is being written by Moore and produced by comic titan Stan Lee.
Showtime enlists gay superhero [Variety]
The author of the Artemis Fowl fantasy children's book series (which, although inventive, never quite reached Potteresque popularity) has been given the go-ahead to write a new addition to the late Douglas Adams' perhaps slightly more popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
Sounds like the new book will include the series' key players, including Ford Prefect and the long-suffering Arthur Dent. No doubt that will be an interesting endeavor, particularly if one takes into account the events of Mostly Harmless, the last Hitchhiker's book that Adams completed before his death in 2001.
Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book [Guardian]
(Link contains a moderate spoiler regarding the original series)
The classic (and heartbreaking) short story Flowers for Algernon has been posted for free online in blog form. If you didn't have the pleasure of reading it in your high school English class, it's about a mentally handicapped young man who undergoes a procedure to dramatically enhance his intelligence.
You can read the story from the beginning here, though I imagine reading it in blog-style reverse chronological order would certainly be interesting.
Simon & Schuster has produced an online animated series called N., based upon a short story by Stephen King that appears in his new anthology Just After Sunset. The series is actually more like a combination of an audio book and a graphic novel, consisting mainly of static images with narration underneath. It looks pretty good so far, even though each episode is quite short.
The story involves a psychiatrist with a patient who claims that his OCD is actually a defense mechanism to keep supernatural beings from invading our universe.
A TV adaptation of Perry Moore's gay teen superhero book Hero appears to be go for launch. Stan Lee himself is backing the project, and two networks have made offers to produce the series, described as a sort of amalgam of Lost and Heroes.
This could be a truly groundbreaking show if it ends up happening, but I think they'll probably name it something other than Hero, unless they want people to confuse it with Heroes.
Is America's First Gay Superhero Coming to TV? [Vulture]
Sony Pictures is producing a film based upon R.L. Stine's young adult horror book series Goosebumps. Do kids today even know who R.L. Stine is? I'm pretty out of touch with our current youth culture. Are Tamagotchis still cool?
At least that theme song is still awesome.
Sony Gets RL Stine's "Goosebumps" [Variety]
[via: Dark Horizons]
Author Christopher Poole has written a pretty interesting-sounding book about a gay hitman who, among various other things, battles jaguars. Also, aliens and vampires?
Renaissance Killer is out now, and I think I may definitely have to read it at some point.
For the next couple weeks, Del Rey Books is offering a free downloadable copy of Betrayal, the first book in the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series, which takes place after the original movie trilogy.
No big whoop for me, but I figure the Star Wars fanatics out there might be interested. And hey, it's free.
Free Download of First Book in Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Series [StarWars.com]
[via: UGO]
Take a look, it's in a book.
By "it" I am of course referring to tentacles, butterflies, and explosions.
At least, that's what you'll find in this intriguing photo series, aptly titled "The Power of Books."
And girls who like girls who like stuff!
Clip of the Week
It was 1980 and disco was dead, but not in the UK!
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